Opinions
4
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Thursday, August 1, 2013
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Online courses are an underdeveloped solution for CSU We at the Daily 49er were shocked when it was revealed that students in San Jose State University’s online courses were more likely to fail than students who took the same course in-person. According to San Jose Mercury News, only 29 percent of SJSU students passed an online remedial math course ur iew in spring 2013, compared to an 80 percent passing rate of students who took the faceto-face course. The data for passing rates in college algebra and statistics courses were nearly identical to those of the remedial math courses. The evidence compiled by San Jose Mercury News showed that students were more likely to succeed in faceto-face courses than SJSU’s online courses, as they are designed now. The shockingly low online passing rates has even led to SJSU’s suspending its onlineonly courses. Because SJSU is a campus in the Cal State University system, we at the Daily 49er are concerned about what the future holds for online courses within the CSU. Although online courses are more affordable for the universities hosting them than in-person courses, we believe that online programs should come as a secondary option. It appears that online courses are a temporary fix for many of the funding problems that have plagued public education in recent years. Even though SJSU’s online courses are a pilot program, its low passing rates should be a red flag to the CSU. With so few students passing the classes, it’s clear that online education needs much more development to be effective. And while we acknowledge there is a time and place for online courses, we want to emphasize that more attention and funding should be devoted to face-to-face courses.
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Some of our concerns regarding online education stems from a lack of interaction between students and professors. Although there are some online courses that prominently feature webcams and teleconferencing, there are many courses that do not. While the passing rates in online courses at SJSU are being futher analyzed, the CSU has announced its intention to further expand its online presence. According to an article from the Sacramento Bee, CSU students will now have the opportunity to enroll in 36 online courses to be available to everyone this fall.
Essentially, a Cal State Long Beach student will now have the opportunity to take an online course offered by another CSU. While the recent news may intrigue incoming students who are seeking to satisfy their general education requirements, the effectiveness of online courses remains unknown. The results at SJSU should warn the CSU of the downsides that online education can bring. Before we can deem online education a viable option for students, we must develop the technology and practices necessary to meet students’ needs. Successful online courses require cultivation.
Bradley Manning’s work with WikiLeaks will leave a lasting legacy Although he will most likely spend the remainder of his life in prison, former U.S. Army soldier Bradley Manning will not soon be forgotten. In accordance with his leak of more than 700,000 classified documents to WikiLeaks, Manning was convicted of espionage, theft and computer fraud by a military judge Tuesday, according to Al-Jazeera. Manning was acquitted, however, of the most serious charge of aiding the enemy. If Manning had been convicted of aiding the enemy, a series of events would have likely unfolded that could have changed the nature of classified leaks forever. According to Al-Jazeera, the lead prosecutor in the Manning case argued for an “aiding the enemy” conviction because al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations could have seen the docu-
Daily 49er Kristine McGowan Editor in Chief eicd49er@gmail.com (562) 985-7998 Courtney Tompkins Managing Editor Rabiya Hussain News Editor Daniel Serrano City Editor Donn Gruta Asst. City Editor Andrew Spencer Asst. City Editor Shane Newell Opinions Editor Asst. Opinions Editor Jovanna Madrigal Asst. Opinions Editor Nicolas Rodriguez
ments Manning sent to WikiLeaks. Although the prosecutor may have had good intentions, the holes in his argument were blatantly obvious. In essence, the prosecutor argued that by sending his leaked documents to a public domain site like WikiLeaks, Manning was effectively handing the hane documents over to terrorist organizations like al-Qaeda. The argument for the prosecutor’s claim is ridiculous. Manning never leaked his documents directly to al-Qaeda or any other terrorist organization, and to imply such an act is baseless. How could Manning have possibly controlled who visited the WikiLeaks site to view his leaked material? If the prosecutor had extended his argument
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beyond Manning, then any person or organization who republished any type of leak could be found guilty of “aiding the enemy.” If The New York Times had published some of Manning’s leaked information, would the newspaper be guilty of “aiding the enemy” as well? Surely it’s possible that at least one member of a terrorist organiewell zation like al-Qaeda had access to such a popular newspaper. Under the prosecutor’s argument, a newspaper could be guilty of the same crime because its published information was in the public domain. Thankfully, however, the judge acquitted Manning of the aiding-the-enemy charge. And although Manning was the not first intelligence officer to leak classified material, he may go down as the most iconic. Among the hundreds of thousands of pages of
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documents that Manning leaked, a video of U.S. soldiers shooting at unarmed journalists will likely be his greatest legacy. According to Al-Jazeera, the 2007 video shows a U.S. helicopter shooting at a Reuters news photographer while calling the targets “dead bastards.” Although Manning did break the law when he leaked classified government information to WikiLeaks, his act of heroism should inspire future generations of leakers. The time to debate controversial issues like the war in Afghanistan, torture in Guantanamo Bay and government surveillance on U.S. citizens is now. Without brave individuals like Manning, the world will continue to live in the dark. Shane Newell is a junior journalism major and the opinions editor of the Daily 49er.
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